My Old Faithful

Robert66

Robert66

Well-Known Member
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I cannot remember the years I have had old faithful, it has served me well, I cannot bear to cast it aside despite it losing its edge, I believe the blade steel has lost its hardness/temper and will not sharpen.

Is it possible to remove the blade, fashion a new one back to its original size and re fit it???

Is there a write up on here or do you have any tips to enable me to fix it.

BTW I have lost it twice in the field and it has been found and handed back to me.

Ta guys.
 
Nothing wrong with an old faithful. It has been sharpened a few times! You could grind off the heads of the pins and fashion a new blade to match the thickness of the original and then put it back together!!

How you did you loose the hardness/temper, you been stirring your campfires with it?? :D

If you truly have not done anything to loose the hardness/temper of the blade maybe you need to try a diamond stone on it!! You can usually sharpen a blade on a diamond stone when nothing else will touch it!!
 
C Craft said:
Nothing wrong with an old faithful. It has been sharpened a few times! You could grind off the heads of the pins and fashion a new blade to match the thickness of the original and then put it back together!!

How you did you loose the hardness/temper, you been stirring your campfires with it?? :D

If you truly have not done anything to loose the hardness/temper of the blade maybe you need to try a diamond stone on it!! You can usually sharpen a blade on a diamond stone when nothing else will touch it!!
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Ah, thank you C C.

I do have a diamond stone and will try tomorrow and let you know.
 
My opinion is over time you have removed enough material through routine sharpening that you are now into a fatter section of the original grind. I bet you could use a slow speed on a belt grinder and make it sharp again with a 150 or 220 grit belt being very careful not to overheat it and really mess up the temper. When I do something like that I dip it in the water after every pass. Better safe than sorry.

I am curious what method have you used to sharpen it over the years?
 
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Wow! That looks like 50 years of sharpening to me! I'm proud of you! You don't easily cast aside a good knife for a newer one.

You might be into softer steel if the edge was the only hardened area. You have a pattern for a blade there when you disassemble it.(the old blade)

I hope you can fix it
 
I used to sharpen it on 2 oilstones but the last 2 yers I have sharpened it on a
1 x 30 and seriously worn it down, my thoughts are that I have NOT dipped it in water and lost some of the temper/hardness which I would not do now since coming on here.

I would not know which steel to get even if I could pluck up courage to take it apart, I reckon I could actually form a new blade though.

A thought just occurred to me, sometime I pick up a good quality stainless steel chefs knife from a car boot sale for a £1, could I cut that up and shape a new blade? thenIwould be in trouble with heat treating it, I have never done stainless.

If I did fix it I would never 1 x 30 it again.

Just thinking out loud really, dunno what to do.
 
Probably be better off using a carbon steel...with a simple heat treat. Give it a good polish after grind...

I like O-1 . O-1 is simple to heat treat I bought some that came from the UK a few years back...it was excellent.

It's okay to 1 x 30 it if you have a very fine belt and light touch. Go on Ed Caffrey's site and look at the video Tim shot of him sharpening with a belt grinder and buffer. He wasn't wasting any steel there...or TIME!! Lol.
 
You can re-blade it.

All the important stuff is still intact. The stuff that connects it to the handle.

Grind the pins (as CC said) and get the blade out and make the new one the same shape as the old one. Drilling the hole(s) where necessary.

1x30 and some files will work for making the new one. Just go slow and check fitment often. Again, go slow. You can always take more material off but you can't put it back on.

Once you have the new blade made and heat treated, pin it into the handle.

Let us know how it works out.
 
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